Understanding Clauses and How to Connect Them to
Avoid Fragments, Comma Splices, and Fused Sentences
A “Grammar Help Handout” by Abbie Potter Henry
Connecting Independent Clauses
There are only three (3) ways to correctly connect two or more independent clauses in a
single sentence:
1. Comma and a Coordinating Conjunction
2. Semicolon
3. Semicolon, Conjunctive Adverb, and Comma
1. A comma plus one of the coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS) will successfully
connect two independent clauses and will create a relationship between the clauses
that they connect.
The Coordinating Conjunctions, aka, F A N B O Y S are:
For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So
Remember: The comma comes first, and the conjunction comes next.* The previous
sentence is an example of this rule. Here are other examples taken from the simple
sentences on the previous page. I have added in italics the relationship that each word
creates.
I eat spaghetti, but she eats pizza, and she hates my dog. Contrast and Addition
I eat spaghetti, yet she eats pizza. Contrast
I was sleepy, so I slept. Cause/ Effect
I slept, for I was sleepy. Effect/cause
I can eat, or I can sleep. Alternative
I love my dog, and my dog loves me. Addition
I can neither eat, nor can I sleep. Negative alternative (Notice that you must
switch some words around in your second independent clause when using the
negative “nor.”
* Coordinating conjunctions can also connect smaller groups of words such as nouns,
pronouns, verbs, adjectives, or phrases. When connecting two of these smaller parts, you
do not need a comma, so the sentence “Jane and Bob went to the store” does not require
a comma before “and” because it is only connecting two subjects not two independent
clauses; likewise, the sentence “I like to walk in the park and around the lake” does not
require a comma because “and” is connecting two prepositional phrases not two
independent clauses.
2. A simple semicolon (;) can connect two independent clauses.
Examples:
I eat spaghetti; she eats pizza.
I was sleepy; I slept.
I can eat; I can sleep.
I love my dog; she hates my dog.
Please notice that, unlike coordinating conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs (transitional
words), the semicolon does not create any kind of relationship between the two
independent clauses; it simply connects the two and makes them part of a single sentence.